Major General and Episcopal bishop Leonidas Polk commanded the Confederacy's "Department 2" headquartered at Columbus, Kentucky. Days after the clash at Belmont, his artillerymen were demonstrating the command's heaviest cannon, named "Lady Polk" after the bishop's wife, when it exploded, a shot having been left in the barrel following the previous action. Seven soldiers were killed and Polk had his clothes blown off, his eardrums injured, and was knocked out. Shock slowed his recovery but he resumed his duties in December. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
Jack D. Welsh, Medical Histories of Confederate Generals (Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1995), 174.
Record Data
Date Certainty
Exact
Type
Battles/Soldiers
